The spring flowers have started to really shine and weeding has started for the year.
Friday Flowers
Tulips 
Tulilps 
Purple Tulips 
Pink Tulips 
Bleeding Hearts Opening for Spring
Gardening Update
Prairie Bed
The last plants are finally in. 21 purple prairie clover, little bluestem and indain grass have been added to the bed. I can see that I’ll want to add more to the bed this fall and next spring, but the bones of the bed are in place. I can’t wait to see things start growing and I’m hoping the blazing star will put on a proper show in a few months. I definitely want to add some small early spring flowers to the center of the bed, Possibly Pasque Flower. I’ll also want to overseed with more clover and grass this fall. I also think some more tall flowers might add something. Golden Alexander and a cone flower both come to mind.
Food Hedge
Spent some time weeding here this weekend. There was a lot of bugle weed and some stray grass getting between the cardboard sheets. I really wish I had the mulch to really do a deep bed here, but I just can’t get any.
Front Forest Bed
I had to start giving the side of the house a bit of attention. The hostas are popping up, but mixed among them was an absolute army of lily of the valley. This is a plant I really want to purge from the yard since it looks so much like the ramps I want to naturalize on the north side of the house. I did a pretty aggressive chop and drop and I expect I’ll be doing it again next weekend.
Aquaponics
I’ve started doing pretty aggressive water changes and it seems to have stabilized the losses. I’ve also added an internal canister filter to each of the tanks to increase the filtration. Both seem to be helping.
On a happier note, the Koi have arrived! There was such a sudden demand for Koi with everyone doing projects this year that the supplier for the bluegill and shiners had run out when they went to fill my order. I lost one the first night, but otherwise, they seem to be acclimating really well.